St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-05-22
BEAUTY ON BROADWAY.
Fair TOilers HOmeward Bound
From Their Days Work,

Fair TOiIers Homeward Bound
From Their Days Work,
New York Journal.
1t is pleasure to walk up Broadway,
from Chambers to Bleecker street, any
bright afternoon from $50 TO 6 o'clock.
Nearly every one of the big build
ingS within those limits have
factories on every floor, where hum
dredS and thousands of girls are en-
ployed in making clothing, underwear,
necktieS, cioaks, fancy boxes and other
articles of luxury and necessity, writes
New York correspondent to the Indi-
annapolis News. Pretty much all of
them are between the ages of IA and %.
By the time they are % they are either
married or swept away, no one knows
where.
Most of these factories close at 5: 80,
and the girls hurry on their wraps and
start for home, and great numbers of
them live in Brooklyn and New Jersey,
where board and lodging is much
cheaper than in New York, and so they
walk down Broadway to the ferries.
They are as handsome set of girls as
can be found anywhere.
Like nearly all American women, they
have the knack of dressing becomingly,
and their trim and shapely figures are
shown off to good advantage. They do
not look disconnected, if bright and
cheerful faces are any criterion, and
two or hr1e at time. They have the
independent bearing of girls who know
they earn their own living and are not
dependent on any man for support.
Some of the prettieSt are accompanied
by young men-perhapS some of the
clerks who have taken a fancy to them
Nearly all of them have been pupils in
the public schools. They read the news
papers and can talk cleverly. A vast
amount of nonsense is printed about
them, but in point of fact they are
as jolly and contented a lot of
young women as can be found else
where in the world There is great
cutlery Oh the part of the theatrical,
short-haired and atmospheric philan-
thrOpiSt, at times, because factory and
shop girls do not give up their employ
ment and seek homes as servants in up
town families.
The. girl knows what she is about.
The bedraggled maid of all work,
nagged by a silly mistress, abused by a
horde of Snappy children and saddled
with thousand cares, has one night out
a week, when she has an opportunity to
be cOurted by the cOachman or the hos
tier. The working girl is her own mistress
absolutely from the time she leaves
the factory at o'clock in the evening
until she returns at s the following
morning. Her independence is abso-
lutte, and during her hours of freedom
she is as much lady as the wife of the
president. She visits her friends and
receives the calls of men who are by no
means to be despised in the matrimonial
market.
A great and welcome change has
come over public opinion respecting
women who have the courage, faith and
energy to go out in the world and make
themselves the arbiters of their own flu
lures, instead of moping at home, a
burden to their friends and trial to
their relatives. That workingwomen
command, in many instances, the high
est respect, cannot be denied by any
man who has an intimate knowledge of
New York life.
There are ladies of high culture,
finished accomplishments and many
graceS of mind and person in the board
ing-houSes of New York who are the
popular leaders of little social circles.
despite the fact that they are employed
during the day. There are grades of
labor, and women have learned to look
tie world in the face and fight for the
best fields.